Hope for the Northern triangle's lost generation : battling detention of unaccompanied children at the Southern border of México

Abstract

Since former President Barack Obama declared an humanitarian crisis when up to 50.000 unaccompanied children crossed into the United States in 2014, relations between the US and Mexico to control the tide of migrants crossing the Guatemalan-Mexican border led to the adoption of the South Border Program, which main result has been the increase of detentions and deportations of migrants in México. Since 2014, México has taken steps forward to presumably protect unaccompanied children, new legislation accurately protecting children has been adopted and new protection figures have been set down in the law. Nevertheless, violations to this compromise are constantly being claimed by civil society. The use of tricky legal terms and a so-called alternative to detention program have been the tools to avoid its responsibility. In the light of this study there is going to be answered whether México can be accountable for the breaches committed to its own legislation while demonstrating how a proper alternative to detention program can be beneficial for the State, host community and children. For this purpose secondary sources, reports and visit to the field, whereby interviews with different stakeholders were taken, will be the tools to collect the data regarding the accountability of México due to the breaches of international and national legislation when detaining unaccompanied children.